Random Tugs 44

Lil Rip !! I’d seen this unique tug twice before; both times were in the Rondout on rainy, dark days. To see Lil Rip yesterday in the euphoric October light . . . it has been worth the long wait. Long waits usually make outcomes more satisfying, eh? Lil Rip, the Empire State Building and even the Chrysler Building! I am

satisfied. Now I understand why my friend Jeff Anzevino chased it through 30 miles of the upriver portion of the Hudson to get pictures a few days ago. Go, Jeff! I’d like to do a whole post on Lil Rip: the three-exhaust configuration itself qualifies as unusual. Help me with some specs/genealogy and I’ll put up more fotos. Here she’s following bulker Florence Lily,delivered by Oshima Shipbuilding in Spring 2009. Lil Rip brings dynamic color (October leaf-red & yellow) to the otherwise gray cityscape;

Co (ex-Draco) 1951 and based in New Bedford! Some rainy day I can imagine the fun to be had figuring out “re-namings” for vessels using this subtraction method. Like Falcon could become Fa . . . or DEP North River could re-enter as No River . . . you get the idea.

Take my word for this one: the tug dividing the shimmery water from the wintry sky is Volunteer 1982.

McAllister Brothers has an interesting stack/top of wheelhouse line. I can’t help notice the drab yellow & red foliage on the far bank.

All fotos by Will Van Dorp. Check out Jeff’s 2010 calendars, one of which is a fundraiser.

tugster — You picqued my curiosity with Lil Rip. I searched the US documentation data base for Lil Rip, Rip and Lil. Not there. Then, thinking she mught be down from Canada, I searched the Transport Canada data base and she is not there either. Very curious.